This is the definitive account of one of the most extraordinary stories of our time. Gyles Brandreth acclaimed biographer of the Queen & Prince Philip" presents a unique portrait of their son Charles Prince of Wales & of the one non-negotiable love of his life Camilla Shand now Duchess of Cornwall. What are Charles & Camilla really like? What is their heritage? What has made them the way they are? This is both a revealing portrait of two unusual individuals & a family saga like no other told with unrivalled authority & insight
- & humour
- by a best-selling writer who has met all the key characters in the drama: Charles Camilla Diana their children their families & their friends."

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Charles Darwins voyage on the HMS Beagle is a gripping adventure story & a turning point in the making of the modern world. Brought together here in chronological order the letters he wrote & received during his trip provide a first-hand account of a voyage of discovery that was as much personal as intellectual. We follow Darwins adventures as he prepares for his travels lands on his first tropical island watches an earthquake level a city & learns how to catch ostriches from a running horse. We witness slavery political revolution & epidemic disease & share the otherworldly experience of landing on the Galapagos Islands & collecting specimens. His letters are counterpoised by replies from family & friends that record a comfortable intimate world back in Engl&. Original watercolours by the ships artist Conrad Martens vividly bring to life Darwins descriptions of his travels. ...

Published 150 years ago Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" caused an uproar from the moment it was released on 24th November 1859. At once heralded for changing the course of science & condemned for its implied challenges to religion few books have been as controversial or as historically significant. In " On The Origin Of Species" author Michael Keller & illustrator Nicolle Rager Fuller introduce a new generation of readers to Darwin's groundbreaking treatise. Drawing on the author's own words
- & rarely seen letters he exchanged with this contemporaries
- Keller & Fuller have produced an accessible artfully rendered adaption of Darwin's masterwork. Including sections about the primary research that led to " On The Origin of Species" the initial public response & recent breakthroughs in evolutionary theory this is a riveting immersive read & is sure to breathe new life into Darwin's seminal & still polarising work."

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The extraordinary life & genius of Charles Dickens is brought alive for primary-age children by the author-illustrator team behind the bestselling What Mr Darwin Saw. Published to celebrate the bi-centenary of Dickens birth this beautifully & entertainingly illustrated 48 page picture book vividly dramatises his life beginning with his birth in Portsmouth & early childhood near the docks in Chatham & follows the young Charles through the hardship of working in a blacking factory at the age of 10 to his years at school & his early career as a reporter. Key incidents that inspired the later novels are described & his marriage family life dramatic readings & tours of the USA are included. What emerges is touching portrait of a writer with amazing observational skills a social conscience & a strong sense of drama. Mick Manning & Brita Granstrom specialise in fun lively non-fiction picture books. They share the illustrations between them & mix up words & pictures in inventive & delightful ways. They have won many awards including the Smarties Silver Award & the English Association Award. As well ast What Mr Darwin Saw their recent successes include Tail-End Charlie & Taff in the WAAF. ...

Charles Dickens" is the acclaimed definitive biography by bestselling author Claire Tomalin. Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demonicly hardworking journalist the father of ten children a tireless walker & traveller a supporter of liberal social causes but most of all a great novelist
- the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: the Artful Dodger Mr Pickwick Pip David Copperfield Little Nell Lady Dedlock & many more. At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings he rose to scale all the social & literary heights entirely through his own efforts. When he died the world mourned & he was buried
- against his wishes
- in Westminster Abbey. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous he cut off his impecunious children. From the award-winning author of " Samuel Pepys" " Charles Dickens: A Life" paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. If you loved " Great Expectations" " Oliver Twist" & "A Christmas Carol" this book is invaluable reading. " By far the most humane & imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader". (Amanda Craig " New Statesman"). Claire Tomalin is the award-winning author of eight highly acclaimed biographies including: " The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft"; " Shelley & His World"; " Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life"; " The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan & Charles Dickens"; " Mrs Jordan's Profession"; " Jane Austen: A Life"; " Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self"; " Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man" & most recently " Charles Dickens: A Life". A former literary editor of the " New Statesman" & the " Sunday Times" she is married to the playwright & novelist Michael Frayn."


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Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demonicly hardworking journalist the father of ten children a tireless walker & traveller a supporter of liberal social causes but most of all a great novelist
- the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: the Artful Dodger Mr Pickwick Pip David Copperfield Little Nell Lady Dedlock & many more. At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings he rose to scale all the social & literary heights entirely through his own efforts. When he died the world mourned & he was buried
- against his wishes
- in Westminster Abbey. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous he cut off his impecunious children. Claire Tomalin author of Whitbread Book of the Year Samuel Pepys" paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. " Charles Dickens: A Life" is the examination of Dickens we deserve."


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Charles Dickens is not only the author of some of the best-loved stories in the English language but also the creator of some of its most memorable characters. Meet them all between the pages of this splendid book which retells in lively comicstrip style five of Dickens most popular stories: Oliver Twist" " Great Expectations" "A Tale of Two Cities" " David Copperfield" & "A Christmas Carol"." ...

An entertaining biography of Charles Dickens by one of our finest actors Acclaimed actor & writer Simon Callow captures the essence of Charles Dickens in a sparkling biography that explores the central importance of the theatre to the life of the greatest storyteller in the English language. From his early years as a child entertainer in Portsmouth to his reluctant retirement from these garish lights just before his death Dickens was obsessed with the stage. Not only was he a dazzling mimic who wrote acted in & stage-managed plays all with fanatical perfectionism; as a writer he was a compulsive performer whose very imagination was theatrical both in terms of plot devices & construction of character. Like many actors Dickens felt the need to be completed by contact with his audience. He was the original celebrity author who attracted thousands of adoring fans to his readings in Britain & across the Atlantic in which he gave voice to his unforgettable cast of characters. In Charles Dickens & the Great Theatre of the World Callow brings his own unique insight to a life driven by performance & showmanship. He reveals an exuberant & irrepressible talent whose inimitable wit & personality crackle off the page. ...

Encounter some of literature's most iconic characters
- Oliver Twist the Artful Dodger Miss Havisham Pip & Ebenezer Scrooge
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No novelist is as intimately connected to a great city as Dickens is to London. The vibrancy & variety of the city determined the shape & character of Dickens work & he in turn re-created London in his fiction. Andrew Sanders retraces Dickens footsteps through the streets alleys highways & byways of the city exploring the physical nature & architecture of Victorian London. He follows Dickens & his characters from the slums to the City from the mansions of Mayfair to the respectable inner suburbs of Islington & Bloomsbury. He journeys from the untidiness of Walworth & Camden Town to the villas of Twickenham & Hampstead & semi-rural retreats of Dulwich Finchley & Highgate. Although vastly changed with time the London that Dickens created is still vividly present in his writing. The first & greatest of urban novelists Dickens captures the essence of the central modern social phenomenon
- the excitements & problems of the city.
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